I verily believe that she shamed them by her gentle friendliness more than she would have done by any outburst of wrath.  Had she urged them now, I am not sure but what they would have given her her way; but she did not.  She put her white velvet cap, with its nodding plumes, upon her head, and taking with her the chiefest of the generals and her own immediate retinue, she made the tour of the walls and defences of the city, showing such a marvellous insight into the tactics of war that she astonished all by her remarks and by her injunctions.

Suddenly, as we were walking onwards, she paused and lifted her face with a wonderful rapt expression upon it.  Then she turned to Dunois, and said with quiet authority: 

“Mon General, I must ask of you to take a small body of picked men, and ride forth towards Blois, and see what bechances there.  I trow there is trouble among the men.  Traitors are at work to daunt their hearts.  Go and say that the Maid bids them fear nothing, and that they shall enter Orleans in safety.  The English shall not be suffered to touch them.  Go at once!”

“In broad daylight, lady, and before the very eyes of the foe?”

“Yes, yes,” she answered instantly; “I will stand here and watch you.  No hurt shall be done to you or to your company.”

So Dunois went at her command, and we saw him and his little band ride fearlessly through the English lines; and scarce could we believe our eyes when we noted that no weapon was raised against them; not even an arrow was shot off as they passed.

“She speaks the words of God.  She is His messenger!” whispered the men who stood by; and her fame flew from mouth to mouth, till a strange awe fell upon all.

She was never idle during those days of waiting.  She asked news of the letter she had sent to the English, and heard it had been delivered duly, though the herald had not returned.  She gave commission to La Hire to demand his instant release, and this was accomplished speedily; for the bold captain, of his own initiative, vowed he would behead every prisoner they had in the city if the man were not given up at the command of the Maid.  I am very sure no such act of summary vengeance would have been permitted, but the man was instantly released and came and told us how that the letter had been read with shouts of insulting laughter, and many derisive answers suggested; none of which, however, had been dispatched, as Talbot, the chief in command of the English armies, had finally decreed that it became not his dignity to hold any parley with a witch.

And yet she could scarce believe that they should none of them understand how that she was indeed come from God, and that they must be lamentably overthrown if they would not hear her words.  On the third day of her stay in the city she caused her great white banner to be carried forth before her, and riding a white horse, clad in her silver armour, and clasping her banneret in her hand she rode slowly out upon the broken fragment of the bridge opposite to the tower of Les Tourelles, and begged a parley from the English general in command.